October 28, 2008

The Rollercoaster

Business school is a rollercoaster ride moving at high velocity with extreme ups and downs. One day you feel absolutely fantastic with aspirations a mile high; the next you’re struggling to keep your head above water, incredibly tired and wondering just why you decided to do this in the first place.

It’s evident with everyone in class. The 16 hour days add up and eventually you are just hoping to get a rest. No one is immune to the occasional ups and downs.

The classes, the preparation for interviewing, the informational sessions, the industry and company research and the exhaustive amount of new learning all take their toll. You really have to open your mind to learning many new subjects (of which may not be your cup of tea) in different ways. It’s tough.

Yet what truly takes its toll is something much more intangible, the uncertainty. Although I couldn’t lay claim to others’ thoughts on the matter, the uncertainty for what the future holds makes everything a little more tiresome. When you don’t know where you’ll end up, what’s the best path and just exactly what you should be doing…well it’s almost as if everything seems like a decent possibility. So you investigate every potential scenario seeming a good fit and end up with a choice paradox that boggles you a bit. So attempting to sort out and deduct the best of all these choices is kind of where I’m at. It’s exhausting.

(This seems like a good time to point out that I’m cognizant of how almost every post I write now is centered around some facet of school. That’s not nearly so much fun for the people who read this blog for a more traditional marketing train of thought. I apologize, but someday I plan on going back through this thing and reflecting on the experience…then openly weeping. :-) Maybe when my coursework is more marketing centric, it will turn the tide.)